


Love From Down Below

by IfullybelieveLarry



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - No One Direction, Angel Liam Payne, Angel/Demon Relationship, Angels, Angels vs. Demons, Attraction, Demon Zayn Malik, Demons, Enemies to Lovers, Forbidden, Forbidden Love, Heaven vs Hell, M/M, Opposites Attract, Secret Relationship, Secrets, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-02 01:22:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16776796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IfullybelieveLarry/pseuds/IfullybelieveLarry
Summary: Liam Payne, an angel. Zayn Malik, a demon. Enemies since the beginning of time, but that doesn't stop them. Their species may be at war, but the two of them find themselves finding an attraction in each other that they can't shake off. Something about the other just makes them fall, and fall hard. The love that is forbidden, but ends up blossoming beautiful, although in secret. No one else can know, but it's not the like the two of them can keep all of it secret for all of eternity.





	1. Introduction: A History Lesson

**Part One: Divided, but Attracted**   
** Introduction: A History Lesson **

* * *

Since the dawn of time, angels and demons have been at each other’s throats. The battle of good versus evil has always been a thing, and it will never stop. Good will never win, and neither will evil. The balance of the world depends on the simple fact that the war will never be over. The war will never be won by either side. If one side did win, chaos would rain down on the human world between our two worlds. The apocalypse would begin and there would be no way to stop it.

Legend does speak of one way the war can end without ending the world along with it. Opposite beings, one angel, one demon. They feel such an attraction that when they are found out, they beg their side to not to fight anymore. With the rank of those two, who are highly regarded on their respective sides, no one can argue and the war would come to a peaceful and happy end. Since neither side won the war, and neither side lost, the balance would stay the same. Their love would continue to blossom and inspire both sides to get along as well as they can, for the benefit of mankind and themselves.

Most beings believe this legend to be just that, a legend. What they fail to realize is that it is much more than a legend, and more of a reality that they will soon face.


	2. Chapter One: How'd I Get Here

**Part One: Divided, but Attracted**

**Chapter One: How’d I Get Here**

* * *

I’ve been fighting in this war for as long as I can remember. Ever since my human body died many centuries ago.

**_Flashback 300 years_ **

When I woke up after my mortal life ended, I was laying in a bed and surrounded by three angels who all had looks of nervousness apparent on their faces. They briefly welcomed me before quickly handing me a uniform and a gun. I’m given very little directions other than “don’t get shot”. My blood somewhat runs cold as I hear them say that. Once they leave my side, I take a look at the place that I’m in. It’s a relatively small building with beds along every wall. There are a few people in the room, looking to be in the same situation as I am since they are getting dressed into what seems to be brand new uniforms just like mine. They seem just as confused as I am as to what could possibly be going on. As I start to get dressed and gather my own thoughts to figure out what could be going on, I freeze up as the back door is opened and in with it comes the almost deafening sounds of gunshots and blood-curdling screams coming from people outside of the building.  _ Where the heck could I possibly be? Am I in the middle of a battlefield? _ To say that I honestly wasn’t scared about what is going on out there would be a lie. I was terrified, but I just couldn’t show it.

Once everyone was dressed, we were all ushered outside through the same door that had been opened earlier. We walk out of the building and are immediately blinded by the intense light coming from the sun while the gunshots and horrifying screams only get louder. The painful sounding screams of the wounded ring in my ears and almost drown out the sounds of the guns being fired. Before we get shot, we are pushed behind some sort of cover so all of us can get used to the light before we must join the others in battle. When I finally regain my sight, I try to take a look at my surroundings to understands what’s going on. The first thing my eyes are met with was the sight of a soldier dragging the almost lifeless body of one of his fellow soldiers. Small groans come from the fallen soldiers, letting me know that he was still alive, but it didn’t give me any sort of comfort. His wounds are pretty bad and I’m not sure if he’s going to live from that.

We are all then shoved out onto the battlefield and then it was every man for himself.

_ Timeskip 100 years _

Battle after battle takes place and finally, there is a silence. The demons, who are the ones we are up against, have retreated from the battle we have just left and the remaining angels begin to search the grounds for signs of life from the hundreds of our fellow soldiers that had fallen during the battle. I’m among the search team to find anyone still alive and to document the ones who have died in battle. In the back of my mind, I’m hoping that I don’t find the only friend that I had made in the century that I’ve been here. I hope with everything in me that they are alive and unharmed.

I must walk carefully over the bodies of angels. Some of them appear to be littered with bullet wounds and blood covers most of their uniform while others seem to have been a one-shot kill. Their empty, lifeless eyes staring right in front of them in the direction their head had fallen when they supposed to be endless lives came to an abrupt and sad end. A few groans fill the otherwise silent air as some of my search team finds someone still clinging to life. I search and search but I don’t find anyone who looks to even be the slightest bit alive. I turn to my left to start heading back to the camp when I’m met with a familiar face staring blankly up at me from the ground.

My heart shatters as I stare at the face of the only friend I have had since waking up. Their once bright and lively brown eyes are now glossed over and void of any life. Blood that had once spilled out of his mouth and fell down his cheek and chin was now dry, telling me that he had been injured, and quite likely died many hours ago. His helmet had fallen off of his head, exposing his brown hair and brings my attention to a bullet wound that sat on his forehead, though that wasn’t the only wound he had received. His blood soaked uniform tells me he was shot many times in the chest.

I’ve seen fellow angels die before my eyes many times at this point. Of course, it was sad to see someone you just had lunch with hours before being gunned down by the demons who we were constantly at war with. It’s always sad to see a sight like that, but the emotions I feel at seeing _ my friend  _ lying dead on the field are much more upsetting. I fall to my knees in front of his lifeless body as tears threaten to fall down my cheeks. I grab a hold of him gently and pull him over so his head is on my lap as I feel my chest tighten and sobs desperately wanting to escape me. His body is ice cold, not warm like I last remember. I’ll never again get to hear him speak, laugh, or do anything else ever.

Tears start to stream down my cheeks and the droplets that fall from my face land on his. I didn’t think I’d be sat here, crying over my friend’s lifeless body, but here I am. My first of many tragedies this war would bring to me.

_ Timeskip 200 years _

Since the death of my friend half a century ago, I’ve been determined to keep anyone else around me from dying. I’ve become so much more driven to keep the demons away since we can’t win this war. At the very least, I try to push their troops away from our own. I don’t want to lose anyone else close to me.

With my newfound drive, it pushed me to work so much harder. This quickly started to move me up in the ranks of the angel army. It didn’t take long before I became a general. The other soldiers highly respected me; General Liam Payne.

Despite what I told myself years ago, I did manage to make a new friend after the death of my other one. His name is Niall, and he’s probably one of the best people I have ever met. He’s very kind and very funny. Luckily for me, Niall is a medic. He doesn’t participate in battles, he just takes care of the soldiers afterward. I don’t have to worry about him being in the line of fire so I don’t have to worry about protecting him.

Niall and I met when I got injured a while back. I was shot in the shoulder and he was the one who patched me up. We immediately hit it off and the two of us became fast friends. Finally having someone to talk to when the battle we currently were fighting was over felt great. I could finally talk to someone about everything without worrying about anything. He was also a good person to have around when you needed to relax because he always had jokes to tell. I honestly think Niall was a blessing sent to me. I don’t know if I could have continued going on without having a single friend. Being alone was such a terrible feeling.

Now, three hundred years since I came here, the war is just the same as it was when I arrived, though for now, the battle has ceased. I sit in my cabin, trying to plan our next attack at the moment. We need to show the demons that we aren’t ones to mess with, but I don’t know how to do it. I scratch my head trying to come up with something before I decide to turn in for the night. 

That night’s dreams are filled with images that make absolutely no sense to me. Images of an intense fire, the outline of an unfamiliar demon soldier, caramel brown eyes with long black eyelashes, and a cinematic view of me and someone else kissing. That last one sort of throws me for a loop. I don’t recall seeing anyone fit the appearance I see of that person: tan skin, raven black hair styled into a quiff, earrings, scruffy black facial hair. No one can I recall that fits that description. On top of that, they are a demon. An angel and a demon kissing? Impossible. That’s never going to happen. Especially not if I’m the angel. I put the dream at the back of my mind when I wake up the next morning, thinking it was just nonsense.


	3. Chapter Two: Caramel Eyes

**_Part One: Divided, but Attracted_ **

**_Chapter Two: Caramel Eyes_ **

* * *

I’m up the next morning at my usual time. You know, five in the morning. The sun hasn’t come up yet, but it’s starting to get a little brighter outside than it was during the night. The crickets outside are still chirping, but other than that, it’s still pretty quiet outside. In the barracks, I’m the only one awake at this hour, though everyone else should be awake in about an hour. Well, I guess you could say that I’m not the only one awake since we have some patrolmen watching for any signs of an enemy attack, but they should be going to sleep when everyone else wakes up since their whole job is just to make sure we don’t get ambushed during the night.

I swing my legs over the side of the bed and get changed into my general’s uniform. Slipping into my pants, pulling on the jacket, and lacing up the boots before standing up and making my way over to the desk to see the plan I tried to work out last night. Although I try hard to focus my thoughts on the plans in front of me, I can’t help but think about the dream I had the night before. I mean, it was very odd. Nothing flowed together. All of it just seemed to be flash images that made pretty much no sense. The only ‘scene’ I got in my dream last confused me. Who was that guy? Why did my dream show me kissing a demon of all things? There is no way I’d be caught dead kissing a demon. They were the ones who killed my first friend so many years ago, and many of my fellow soldiers since.

Well, it’s not their fault we have to be killing each other though. Since the beginning of time, we’ve been killing each other to keep balance on earth. It’s always good versus evil, and we can’t change that. There’s nothing we could do to change it. For fun though, we like to talk about a legend all of us have heard about and pretty much know by heart. I first heard about it after the first battle I participated in was over. It was then that I asked older and higher ranked angel soldiers why we are fighting and who we are fighting. It was then that they explained the whole situation to me. That was also the moment I first heard about it. This is how the legend goes:

_ An angel, well respected among all the others. A demon, high ranking in his army. Two very different beings, inside and out. They will be the answer to end the otherwise never-ending war. _

_ They spot each other and immediately feel a connection. They eventually act on it and quickly change from being enemies to lovers, though at first, they keep it a secret. After some time, when they are found out, they beg their side to stop fighting for the sake of peace and love. The two sides form a treaty and end up getting along as best as they can. The two lovers then blossom into a beautiful relationship that continues to inspire demons and angels for centuries to come. _

Of course, everyone who has ever heard this legend finds it absolutely ridiculous. Come on. Secret lovers convincing a war to end? Sounds like bullshit if you ask me. Some angel decided to give us false hope for this war to end at some point. There is no way that something as dumb as an angel and demon falling in love would stop centuries of war between angels and demons. There is no way that would ever happen. War doesn’t work like that, at least I don’t think it does.

Pulling myself out of the deep thought I somehow managed to get into, I look down at the strategy that I had all planned out for our next attack on the demons. They’ve already attacked us so we need to attack back. It involves stealth and skill, and I hope I can get enough of these angels to help in these ways. I’ll have to go looking. I patiently wait for six to get here so all of the soldiers are awake and dressed. I then call for them to stand in the yard to brief them on the next plan of attack that I had worked on.

“Alright, here’s the deal. A few days ago, as you obviously know, the demons ambushed us during the night. Unprepared, we fought back as best as we possibly could. We lost quite a few of us during the course of that battle,” I begin. When I get to the part about losing some of those we have fought closely beside, I can’t help but notice that a few of their faces drop a bit, though they do try to keep a brave face. Many of us have lost friends over the last few days, and I know how hard it is for some of them. The first loss you experience in this world is always heartbreaking, but we have to move on from it. “We now must attack back, but this time I want to try a different approach. I will evaluate you all on your stealth and accuracy. Those I deem worthing will join me on an attack of the demon’s base, to avenge those who have fallen because of their hands. Everyone else will wait behind until I give the signal to attack. Understood?” I’m met with a chorus of “yes, sirs” in response. “Good. After breakfast, report to the training grounds so I can evaluate you and your skills. You are now dismissed to breakfast.” With that, everyone disperses and heads to the breakfast area. I watch them leave to go eat before I’m approached by the only friend I have made since the death of my other friend so long ago. “Horan,” I greet him with a small smile and a nod. He gives me a smile and nods back before he speaks.

“General Payne, he greets me before the two of us laugh a little at the initial stiffness and professionalism of our greeting. “You doing okay today?” He asks, generally curious about my wellbeing, which feels good to know that someone cares about how I’m doing.

“Yeah, I guess I’m doing okay. Honestly, I’m just tired of having to fight this war that at this point just seems so pointless,” I say as the two of us begin to walk to the breakfast area where everyone else is standing. “I mean, neither of us can win, so why do we constantly have to be trying to kill each other. It’s not like it will help either of is. I would be perfectly okay if I never saw another demon for the rest of my eternity,” I rant a little to Niall, who nods along with my statements, following what I’m saying.

“Me too, though. Living my life without seeing another one of those things would make me happy. I just wanna live a peaceful life and not have to patch up so many wounded each day while I look at the countless others who I can’t help. You don’t understand how heartbreaking it is to see each and every day,” Niall says to me as his voice shifts to one delight and happiness to one of sadness and regret. Niall is one of the top medics we have. Each and every day, he goes from patient to patient to help save their lives or fix their wounds. He also has the dreary task of identifying the ones who have passed. In his time, he’s probably identified thousands of bodies of our fallen angels who have died in battle. It’s a burden that I’m sure is hard for him to live with, but he does it, each and every day. I honestly think this makes Niall a very strong person. He sees so much tragedy and deals with so much guilt due to the number of people he can’t do anything for, and yet he still does it.

“I understand that it must be hard for you, Niall, but I’m glad we have someone like you to do it. Someone who cares so much and will try everything they can,” I say, placing a hand on his shoulder gently, trying to reassure him that he’s doing a great job. He looks at me and I give him a small smile, which he returns with a smile of his own. The two of us finally arrive at the breakfast area and get ourselves something to eat and drink. We sit at a table next to each other and enjoy the meal of biscuits and eggs while washing it down with a cup of coffee made just the ways we like it. I like it black while Niall drinks it with quite a bit of sugar. I’m not sure how he can enjoy coffee like that. Anything in coffee just ruins it if you ask me.

“So, how did you sleep last night, mister General?” Niall asks me with a smile as he munches on a biscuit.

“I slept really good,” I begin, “though I did have a really weird dream if you can call it that.” My mind then drifts back to the flash images once again. I then proceed to describe them to Niall, hoping that he may be able to tell me why I had a dream like that. Alas, he is of no use. After I finish describing the dream, he just shrugs at me.

“That’s an odd one, Payno. Maybe it was just that, a weird dream. It probably means nothing. I mean, how could it. You and a demon? Ha. Don’t make me laugh,” Niall says with a small chuckle, making me laugh a little along with him.

Niall is right. I really shouldn’t put too much thought into it. It’s probably nothing at all. “Yeah. You’re right. Well, I have to get my troops evaluated for the attack tonight,” I say, standing up. “I’ll see you later.”

I then go to the training grounds and spend a few hours there, handpicking the fifteen soldiers I want to accompany me during this stealthy mission. All I want for us to do is at least take out a few of their soldiers. If we can get in and get out, then I won’t bring in the rest of my soldiers, but if they fire back and it becomes a battle, I’ll give them the signal.

Nighttime has fallen before we arrive at the base of the demons. The night is still kinda young so there are still quite a few of them who are wide awake, but not nearly as many as there would be if we attacked during the day. The darkness provides us a great cover as we sneakily find some hiding places. So far, everything goes absolutely smoothly. We managed to make it to the base without being spotted, and I’m just glad we made it this far.

I tell the fourteen soldiers to wait behind so I can scope out the situation on my own. I quietly and quickly make my way through the base, completely unnoticed by everyone I manage to sneak past.

I make it to the heart of the base without getting caught and I mentally pat myself on the back. If I’m truly honest, I didn’t think I would make it this far in without being found. “Good job, Liam. Looks like there are plenty of places for them to hide on their way into the base. Now, you just need to sneak back to-” I’m cut off of my quiet thought process by a demon walking right in front of me. With the lights in the base at his backside, all I see is his silhouette. I’m not even sure if he’s looking at me or not. I hope with everything in me that they don’t spot me, but all my hope is in vain as he pushes me up against the wall of the building I was hiding behind. “What are you doing here, angel? Speak now or I’ll end you where you stand,” I hear him growl. Since he had to turn his head to pin me to the wall, his face was now turned to the light and I can see his features. The one thing that sticks out strongly to me are those beautiful caramel eyes that I had seen before, but only in my dream the night before.


	4. Chapter Three: Dwelling on the Dream

**_Part One: Divided, but Attracted_ **

**_Chapter Three: Dwelling on the Dream_ **

* * *

“Come on now, speak up or I will kill you,” the demon growls at me again. I feel his hand grip my throat tightly, almost cutting off my ability to breathe at all. I gasp for breath and try to say something, anything. Anything at all.

“P-Please…” I manage to choke out as I pull at the hand that is tightly gripping my throat. “I-I promise I-I’ll leave if you just p-please let me go…” I beg softly as I close my eyes, hoping with everything in me that he’ll listen and let me go. I’m caught off guard when his grip on my neck loosens and he eventually let's go, pulling back away from me so there’s space between the two of us. I gasp for breath, now able to breathe. I honestly didn’t think he would let go of me that easily. It didn’t take a lot to convince him. I stare at the demon in surprise as I let my fingers gently touch my sore throat; no doubt there will be bruises there by morning. He did grab my throat really hard. “You actually let me go?” I ask quietly as I continue to stare at him in disbelief. He lets out a small sigh before responding to my surprised question.

“I only let you go because I don’t want my people to panic. You said that if I let you go, you’ll leave. Assume that you’re a man who keeps his word, so I let you go,” he explains to me simply. He was right though; I am a man of my word. He runs his fingers through his raven hair that had been styled into a jiffy so perfectly. He closes his eyes as he let out another sigh. “Now, leave here. I’m letting you off with a warning. If I ever scratch you sneaking around this base - my base - ever again, I will not hesitate to kill you without any mercy,” he growls, giving me a threatening glare. “Just so we’re clear, that’s not a threat. It’s a fucking promise.” His growl sends a shiver up my spine and I nod quickly. If I’m honest, it’s not that I was afraid of dying. Dying was something that I had accepted as a possibility so many years ago so I’m not scared of that thought anymore. I agree to leave so my troops that I have left behind aren’t just waiting in their hiding spot until they are found and killed. I screwed up the mission and I had to take them back so they’d be safe.

Once the demon who had caught me finally leave, I sneakily make it back to the other troops the same way I had left them. I dodge demon after demon that I pass by without getting caught. I mentally kick myself over and over for getting caught the first time, although it wasn’t really my fault There was nothing I could have done to keep him from seeing me. I’m honestly thankful that he let me go. I expected immediate death if I was caught. To have the demon spare me was astonishing. I quickly make my way to my hidden soldiers before leading them away from the base as quickly and quietly as I can.

“General Payne, what about the plan?” One of them asks me once we are out of the base and a little ways away. “Why are we leaving?” I sigh a little and contemplate what I’m going to say I should really tell them the truth: that I got caught and we had to bail. I couldn’t let them know that I was the reason we had to abandon the mission. They would lose faith in me as a leader. I silently walk ahead of the others before finally deciding what to say.

“I failed you. I got caught by an enemy and he agreed to let me go if I would leave,” I admit to them. “I couldn’t risk your lives for the sake of the mission. We had no choice be to retreat.” I really felt bad that I was the reason we failed. Everyone put their trust in me to get the job done, but I messed it up. I’m glad we didn’t lose anyone during this failed mission though. It would have been a disaster if we had to retreat after one or more of us was killed.

The rest of the long walk back to our base is quiet. Not a single word is spoken since I admitted my mistake. The only sounds that are heard are from all of us walking as well as a few crickets chirping in the grass. The sky is much darker now than when we arrived at the base of those demons, but we have a long ways to go before the morning sun is to rise again. The darkness of the night still surrounds us as we enter our own base. The stench of failure permeates the air, letting everyone who was still awake at this time that the group I led had failed in their mission. We pass by disappointed faces before I stop the small group in the yard where we had met before we left. Their faces also have a look of disappointment on them, and I honestly couldn’t blame them.

“We tried our best, and in the end, we might have failed, but we all escaped alive. In my opinion, that’s a win. We just need to try again at another time. As for now, you are all dismissed to go get some much-needed sleep,” I tell them, trying to brighten their mood a little. I watch as everyone I had with me that night walk off to their sleeping quarters. I let out a small sight before saying goodnight to the patrolmen as they start their duties for the night. I make my way back to my sleeping area as the image of the demon who found me pops back into my head. I have never seen him before, so how is it that I had a dream with him in it?? Not only that, but how, more like why, did my brain make up a whole scenario with him, or someone who looks like him, where we were kissing? That makes no sense whatsoever.  _ Liam, chill.  _ It’s probably just a coincidence. I’m sure my brain just came up with a face that just so happened to look like the demon that I had met today during the failed sneak attack.

After making it to my sleeping area, I get undressed and climb into my bed. I close my eyes and try to get some sleep, but sleep manages to elude me now. Although I want to sleep desperately so I don’t have to think about anything anymore, I can’t do it. I toss and turn for who knows how long before I finally get up, realizing that sleep will not come to me tonight. I slide out of bed and decide to go ahead and get dressed so I can go pay Niall a visit to the infirmary, where he’s taking care of patients at the moment. Once I’m all dressed, I leave my sleeping area and head to where I know Niall should be right now.

The closer I get, the more I can hear groans from soldiers who are wounded, from the battle that had just passed, and in pain, which keep many of them from sleeping at the moment. It hurts me to be so close to those who I didn’t protect. I should have done more to keep them safe, but I can’t change that now.

I walk into the building that houses our wounded and immediately spots Niall talking to one of them who are close by. I then make my way over there. “I know it hurts, Luke, but you’re going to be okay. I promise. I patched you all up and I just gave you some pain medication. I should kick in pretty soon so just relax and try to get some sleep,” he says to the groaning soldier calmly. His voice is soft, sweet, and reassuring. The wounded soldier in front of him gives him a small nod before laying in a more comfortable position and closing his eyes to hopefully get some sleep. Niall carefully pats his shoulder before standing up and turning around when he finally notices my presence. “Oh, hi, General. What brings you here?” He asks, obviously surprised to see me here at this time of night.

“Couldn’t sleep so I thought I would come by and see you. Maybe give you a hand,” I offer. I may not be medically trained like Niall, or even at all, but I know I could be at least a little useful to him so I’m not just wandering around aimlessly. “Of course if you think I’ll just be in the way then I can just leave.”

“No, you’re good. You can stay. For now, I’m just going around and checking how everyone’s doing. Giving pain medication to whoever really needs it,” he explains to me and I nod in response. “You can just join me and we can chat a bit as we go along.” Niall then starts to walk to the next bed where a sleeping soldier lays and I follow close behind. Since the next one is fast asleep, Niall decides to chat to me a little with a certain topic of conversation. “So, what has you up and unable to sleep? Thinking about something specific or you just couldn’t sleep?” I take a deep breath before answering his question.

“I was thinking about something that was bothering me, yeah,” I begin softly. “I’m thinking about that dream again.” It’s at this point that I hear a groan come from my medic friend; he’s probably annoyed with me bringing it up yet again.

“You’re still on that?” He asks, giving me a quick glance before moving from the bed we were at to the next one close by. “Liam, it was a dream. It doesn’t mean anything, okay? Your brain just made something up the other night,” he tries to reason with me, but he’s not understanding what I saw when I was at the demon’s base earlier tonight. If he knew, then he’d be confused and curious too. It is now that I decide to tell him exactly what happened.

I take a deep breath before speaking up. “Niall, listen, okay? I can’t stop thinking about it because of what happened when I went to the demon’s base. You’re going to think I’m crazy, but just listen, okay?” Niall gives me a nod and I continue on. “I went to the base and snuck my way to the heart of it by myself. I thought I was safe when I made it to the center since I hadn’t been seen up until that point. Well, I seemed to have said that too early because right after, I was seen by a demon.” Niall’s face drops when he hears me say that. I pretty much expected that response from him. The odd thing is that he looked just like the guy I saw in my dream. He looked exactly like him, Niall,” I say to him, trying to get him to understand what I’m saying. “Isn’t that weird, Niall? The day after I have that dream, I meet a demon who looks just like the demon from my dream.” Niall gives me a small nod.

“That really is weird, but it’s still probably a coincidence, Liam,” he tries to tell me, but I don’t believe it even for a second. It’s too much of a coincidence to be just that. Instead of arguing with him about it though, I just nod a little and drop it. Now having nothing to talk to him about, I decided I should leave and go back to my sleeping area to try and get at least a little sleep, even though I’m still not tired. I fake a yawn that grabs Niall’s attention once again. “Tired, General Payne?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Well, I should head back to my sleeping quarters. A few hours of sleep is better than none,” I say, earning a nod from him. We exchange goodbyes and I head back to my area. I climb into bed after getting undressed and try to sleep. I only manage to get maybe an hour of sleep before waking up at my usual time. Maybe things will be calm and quiet today so I can relax. Sadly, my hopes are crushed when I hear a gunshot and the alarm bell ring loudly.

_ Oh no. Another attack. _


	5. Chapter Four: Save His Life

**_Part One: Divided, but Attracted_ **

**_Chapter Four: Save His Life_ **

* * *

When the sound of the alarm bell rings, I watch as all my fellow soldiers rush out of their sleeping areas. All of them are dressed with their weapons in their arms, ready to fight. I tell them to move now and they run out of the base to attack the demons back. More gunshots ring through the air as the battle really begins now. I go around the base instructing the patrolmen who had been on watch to now focus on protecting the infirmary. The last thing we need is for a demon to walk in here and kill our helpless, injured soldiers or our medics. After giving them their new duties, I grab my gun and join the others in battle.

I dodge bullets that pass right by my head as shots and screams from injured soldiers fill my ears. Having been fighting for so long, I’m used to all of the sounds that come with battles such as this, so I just find a place to hide out and I return shots to the demons. “We have to push forward so they will hopefully fall back!” I call out to soldiers who are nearby. “We need to keep them away from the base so they won’t try to take out everyone who is still inside! Push forward, troops!” I watch as my soldiers file out of their hiding places to go forward, but they still stay careful so they don’t get shot along the way. I let them get a little way without me before joining them, firing of who knows how many shots at the demons who only seem to be getting closer and not falling back.

Soldiers all around me fall to the ground, injured or even dead, but I don’t stop us from pushing forward. Their front lines are getting nervous, and we can all tell. Demons in front of us fall to the ground, also injured or dead. I hate that we have to do this, but there is nothing we can do to stop killing each other. I have to ignore the screams of the enemy’s fallen soldiers to keep pushing us forward.

Without any sort of warning or anything of the sort, I get a burning sensation in my shoulder that enters through the front and exits through the back of it, and I immediately know what happened. “Keep pushing forward until you die or they fall back! Don’t give up!” I call out to my advancing troops before finding a place to hide to tend to my new wound. Managing to find a tree, I go there and sit down, groaning at the pain in my shoulder. “Shit. Shit shit shit…” I groan out, holding it as blood pours out and stains my clothes. The amount of blood pouring from it seems like a lot and I know that I need to find some way to stop the bleeding. Since my shirt is ruined anyway, I rip off the long sleeve of it and wrap it around my shoulder as tight as I can to hopefully stop the bleeding. I’m glad the bullet went all the way through because I don’t want to mess with having to get a bullet out of my own shoulder. In my centuries of being here, fighting this war, this is the first time I’m getting shot, but I manage to not completely freak out, which is really surprising if I’m honest.

I sit against the tree and try to keep myself calm when I hear a groan nearby. It grabs my attention and I turn my head to the side to see a demon laying on the ground near me, blood seeming to pour from his stomach, telling me he was shot there. Against my normal actions, I carefully go over and flip him over to see his face and I’m surprised to see that it’s the same demon that had found me the night before. I’d recognize his features anywhere, but it’s his eyes that tell me it’s the same guy. The same caramel eyes that I had seen in my dream.

“You…” he groans, glaring at me. “Come to watch me die…?” Although he tries to sound tough and unafraid, I can see right through it. He’s laying there, scared and in pain, and I can see it. “Why don’t you just leave me here to die in peace? Go do something else and leave me here.” My brain wants me to do what he says and just leave him here to die, but I just can’t. Seeing how injured and scared he is right now causing me to do something I didn’t think I would ever do. I call over a nearby angel and instruct him to pick up the injured demon. Knowing that I’m the one who’s really in charge, he does what I tell him to do, no questions asked. “Woah, what are you doing? Stop. Leave me here!” The demon yells, struggling as much as his body allows him before he starts to get weak from blood loss.

“Let’s get him back to the base and to the infirmary. Now,” I tell the soldier of mine and he nods. He runs back to the base with the demon in his arms and I quickly follow behind, holding my injured soldier as the sounds of the battle behind us start to fade into the distance. I watch as the familiar demon goes somewhat limp in my comrade’s arms, telling me he’s getting very weak very quickly. Luckily, we make it to the base and to the infirmary just as he passes out.

“General Payne? What is going on here?” Niall asks when he sees me rush in with the demon who is now out cold and still bleeding out. I shake my head a little and offer no explanation.

“Don’t worry about it, just save him now,” I order and Niall nods, once again understanding that I’m the one in charge and that he shouldn’t argue with what I want him to do. He immediately calls over a bunch of other medics and has the soldier who carried him in set him on a stretcher. They quickly get to work on saving the demon’s life as I sit on a stretcher so another medic can address my minor wound.

I take a deep breath as I watch all the medics, as well as Niall, do their best to save the dying demon’s life. I honestly don’t know what it was that told me to save him. I’ve never wanted to save another enemy’s life before now, so why is it with this one different? Shit. I’ve been threatened by him just the day before, so why do I want so desperately to save his life when he would end mine in a split second? I should have left him out there and yet here I am, watching as my medics try to save him.

I wince a little as the medic who was working on my shoulder finishes patching me up and places bandages on the wound. He makes sure to give me a few pain pills to help with the pain in my shoulder before leaving my side to help everyone else who is just in a frenzy. Niall, who is as chill as a cucumber right now, works diligently on fixing him up as others keep an eye on his condition or hooks him up to certain monitors or IVs. Above all the other sounds in the room, the only thing I manage to focus on is the heartbeat beeping on the monitor, telling me he’s alive for the time being. His heartbeat is a little fast, but by the calmer atmosphere surrounding everyone who is working on him, I can tell that it’s not beating too fast.

_ Please… stay alive… _

After watching for a moment or two, I get up from my stretcher and leave the infirmary to go back to my area. I just can’t bear to watch them work on him anymore. I just feel my heart being tugged on, so I decided it would be best if I just leave before I get too emotional, which I somehow feel myself get to that point where I would like to cry. That feeling doesn’t wash over me very often, but it does at this moment. All I can do is hope with all of my heart that he stays alive. I shouldn’t care, but I do. I care about his life a lot more than I should, considering that he’s supposed to be my enemy. I just feel drawn to him in a way that I can’t explain. I don’t even know his name or anything about him other than the fact that he’s a demon.

As I get closer to my quarters, the troops who were outside the base fighting against the demon start to pour back into the base. I watch as they file in, some of them carrying other soldiers as others walk in with sad looks on their faces at the probable loss of someone that they knew. I welcome them back and tell them to take the injured to the infirmary and for the rest of them to just go rest up and get ready for some food. They all nod and do what they need to as I go to my quarters.

I relax there for a while kind of worried about how the enemy I “rescued” is doing. I hope that he’s alive and I hope he continues to live, though I’m so confused on why I’m so concerned. Maybe I’m hoping to get some answers from him concerning the dream that I had, but I honestly don’t think he’ll have any idea what I’m talking about. Judging by the way he greeted me the night before and how he reacted when I tried to save his life, there’s nothing there for me to learn from him. “Why am I like this? What is going on? He’s nothing to me, so why do I care about him?” I ask myself, resting my head on my desk which is now clear of all evidence of the failed mission I tried.

I just stay in my quarters and think until I’m brought out of my thoughts by a familiar voice interrupting them. “So, mind telling me what all that was about? Why you brought a demon to our base so I could save his life,” Niall’s voice says in a serious, confused tone. I turn my attention to the door where I heard his voice come from and he stands there with a confused and borderline concerned look on his face. “He’s fine, by the way. We saved his life. He’s resting in a private area so no one knows that he’s there and they won’t try to kill him or anything.”

I nod a little and stand up from my spot at the desk. “I appreciate you doing that. I didn’t quite think that far ahead to when the other soldiers get back or anything. I’m just glad you saved his life.” My body relaxes a little as I realize that he’s okay, though it shouldn’t have been tense in the first place.

“Now, would you mind explaining to me what all that was about?” He asks, arms crossing. “He’s the enemy, so why were you so insistent on saving his life? Usually, you don’t care if a demon dies, so what makes this one so different?” I sigh softly, knowing I do need to explain it to Niall so he’ll kind of understand what’s happening.

“Come sit down on the bed and I’ll explain everything to you,” I say softly, sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to me. I watch as Niall lets out a sigh before taking a seat next to me. I then explain everything to Niall and I watch his face as I explain it. Niall only seems to get more and more confused as I go on. Once I finish explaining everything, I look at Niall, waiting for him to say something in response. He looks at me like I have two heads before giving me a response.

“Okay, I think you’re crazy, Liam. I mean, you’re saving this… demon… because of your dream? You brought him into the base. Our enemy. We can’t have him stay here forever and we definitely can’t have him go back to them. Not only that, but this is going to cause a panic when everyone else finds out that you brought a demon here into the base,” Niall criticizes me as he looks at me disapproving look. “What are you planning to do with him now?”

Honestly, I don’t know what to do now. I was just acting on impulse when I saved him. What now?


	6. Chapter Five: What Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is coming so late, guys. Been distracted by a bunch of other stuff all at once. I hope you like this chapter, though.

**_Part One: Divided, but Attracted_ **

**_Chapter Five: What Now?_ **

* * *

“I don’t know what I’m going to do next, Niall. I honestly don’t know,” I begin. “I didn’t quite think everything through. All I knew is that I needed to save his life, so don’t come at me. I will get a solution figured out. I just need some time.” I run my fingers through my hair, frustrated with myself for acting on impulse. I’ve always told everyone to not do things impulsively and what did I do? I saved an enemy soldier and brought him back to the base on impulse. As much as I want to sit here and criticize my poor decision, I turn my thoughts to the demon who is resting in his own private area right now and I ask Niall to do something for me. “Niall, can you please take me to see him? I just want to really see if he’s okay. I trust you, but I just want to see for myself how he’s doing. Maybe then I’ll be able to figure out what I’m going to do with him next.”

Niall sighs and stands up, turning away from me. “Let’s get going then. I won’t be able to stop you, so I might as well just take you there,” he says and I stand up, following him close behind so I can see my rescued “friend”. I watch as I pass by soldiers who are on their way to the eating area. Their faces are tired and gloomy from the day that had barely begun. I sigh softly, wishing that I had done so much more to keep them safe and sound right now.

It takes a bit of time, but Niall and I eventually make it to the infirmary and Niall begins to lead me to the back where there are a few private rooms. Three of them are empty with their doors wide open, but the other one has its door closed, signaling to other people that that room is occupied by someone. I know that behind that closed door is the demon that I had saved only a short time ago. “Is he awake yet, do you know?” I ask Niall as the two of us just stand outside of the door. He’s waiting for me to walk in, but I’m nervous to so the two of us are just kind of standing there, waiting for the other to move.

“He shouldn’t be awake yet. We gave him quite a few medications so he should be out for quite some time. This is to keep him under control and to keep him from feeling any sort of pain. The wound you brought him in with was pretty severe and I’m sure it was painful to him. If he does happen to wake up while you’re in there, just stay calm and try to keep him under control. If he starts to lash out, call for me or someone else and we’ll sedate him,” Niall explains to me before opening the door, which he does have to unlock. We can’t have just anyone walking in and finding him here. That would be so bad. “I sure hope that you know what you are doing, Liam. I don’t want something bad to come of the situation you now created.” I give him a nod before walking into the room to see him lying in the bed, sound asleep. He’s tucked under the blankets and the only real sound in the room beside my footsteps as I walk further in is the heart monitor beeping a steady beat. The only other thing in the room is a chair which is pushed up against the wall near his bed. I grab it and bring it over to the side so I can sit down next to him.

“Alright, Liam. You saved him, now what are you going to do?” I ask myself softly as I study his relaxed, sleeping form. I can now take this opportunity to examine his appearance fully. What jumps out to me now is how many tattoos he has. I see now that both of his arms are covered in many different tattoos, and from what I can tell, some of his chest is as well. I study them closely and see just how nice all of them are. There’s a checkered flag on his left forearm, as well as a tiger on his bicep on the same arm. On his left hand is a henna tattoo which flows into another tattoo that goes up to the middle of his forearm. On his right hand, there is a pair of red lips breathing out smoke. Going up to his right forearm, I see a microphone and “zap” designed the way it would look in a comic book. On his chest, I see a tattoo of a red wolf with wings spreading out of it. Of course, all of the tattoos I have named aren’t all of them, but a few I found the best to look at. In a weird way, they seem familiar to me. Like I had seen them all long ago. I push these ridiculous thoughts out of my mind though because how could I have ever seen all of these before. No one I around much have tattoos like these and I can’t possibly remember things from my human life which has long since passed. I move on from his tattoos to study his facial features. Smooth skin, nice stubble lining his chin, his eyelashes falling perfectly onto his cheekbones, a simple nose ring sitting on the side of his nose. All things I have never had the chance to notice until now since he’s fast asleep.

To say the guy in front of me was perfect would be weird, but I honestly don’t know how else to describe his appearance. I have never seen anyone who looked the way he did. No one has ever caught my eye before him, but maybe I wouldn’t have given his appearance any thought if he wasn’t the one I dreamed about. It’s honestly hard to tell at this point. Maybe I’m just trying to focus on how I dreamt about him when I have obviously never seen him before. Maybe he and I did have a connection before. Back when the two of us were still human. Honestly, it’s so hard to tell. I don’t know how long ago he became a demon and I’m not even sure if there is any way to find out if the two of us knew each other back then. Not only has it been centuries since I left my human life behind, but I honestly don’t think that records of anyone’s human lives are kept. They might be, but I’m honestly not sure. Maybe I’ll have to check into that at some point.

I continue to sit there next to him when I do something I didn’t even plan to do. My body just did it. I reach forward and grab his hand, giving it a small squeeze. It feels… almost like our hands fit together like two puzzle pieces. Having his hand in my own feels right, and I don’t want to let go so I don’t. I continue to sit there with his hand in mine, just trying to figure out what I’m going to do with him now that he’s here. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but when I figure it out, then I’ll make sure that you are safe. I really don’t want you to die, so I’ll make sure you won’t. You’re important to me for some reason… Zayn…” I whisper the last part softly, but I shock myself when I utter out a name.  _ Zayn… _ could that really be his name? If so, how did I come up with it? That’s such an odd name so it’s not like I could have been guessing.

As if on cue, I feel his hand squeeze mine as his body starts to stir, telling me that he’s waking up. I feel my own heart begin to race as I watch his face scrunch up a little before his eyes flutter open, showing off his nice brown eyes. It takes him a moment to adjust to the light that is suddenly pouring into his eyes. He looks around and his eyes eventually land on me. “What? What are you doing here? Where am I?” He asks, starting to get scared. He pulls his hand away from mine and curls up, scooting to the other side of the bed so it’s harder for me to reach him.

“Zayn, Zayn, shh. Just relax before you rip your stitches. You don’t want to have to get all stitched up again,” I say softly, trying to relax him as much as I can. His eyes widen when I began talking and he looks at me with a shocked expression. “What?” I ask, confused about why he’s so confused.

“How… did you know my name…?” he asks, really taken aback by how I knew that. Honestly, I couldn’t answer his question even if I wanted to. I don’t know at all how I knew, but I did. It’s like some part of me just knew his name. It just came to me out of nowhere, and I honestly wish I knew where it came from. All I can do to answer him is shrug and shake my head. “You had to have figured it out somehow. Have you been following me? Spying on me? What do you want from me?”

I shake my head more and try to be relaxing. “No, just relax, Zayn. I don’t know how I knew your name. I just knew somehow. Please just trust me, okay? You need to calm down and relax. I’m not going to hurt you or anything,” I say, hoping he’ll listen to me. I don’t want him to feel unsafe or anything because he doesn’t need to be. It’s just me and him in this room and no one else is going to bother him, except for Niall and any other medics who come in to check on him while he’s here in the infirmary.

Hesitantly, he relaxes and scoots back to the middle of the bed and lays back against the pillow. “Why did you even save me? You should have just left me on the ground to die,” his voice comes out small and broken, kind of like he was upset. I know he really didn't want to die, but I knew he wishes that I wasn’t the one to save him.

“I couldn’t bear to leave you there to die. I needed to make sure you were okay,” I admit because it was really how I felt. I didn’t want him to die. I wanted him to live, and I did what I thought was right. “I don’t know why I needed to save you, but I did. I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I don’t know what is going to happen to you after this, but I promise that you will be okay. You will live. That is one thing I can be sure about.” Once again, I reach over and grab his hand instinctively. “I’ll make sure you’re okay.” I honestly expect Zayn to now pull his hand away from me in a sort of ‘what the hell’ kind of way, but he doesn’t. Instead, he squeezes my hand gently back and lets me continue to hold his hand. To say this moment was perfect wouldn't quite describe how it felt. It just… felt calm and relaxing, I guess. It felt right to hold his hand in mine.

Neither of us speaks for a few minutes, just enjoying the feeling of holding each other’s hand in our own. When I do finally speak, I say something I should have said at the start of our conversation. “My name is Liam, nice to meet you, Zayn.”


End file.
